What is an Incubator?

You have an idea. He starts to develop it, he works hard, but at some point he lacks resources, validations and sometimes even a space to make his idea definitely grow. This is the path that many entrepreneurs face in the process between having an idea and getting it off the paper.
This is what the incubators came to think of.

In medical vocabulary, an incubator is a place where a baby with growth difficulties will receive support to be able to develop in its most fragile moment. Entrepreneurship lent the concept and created environments where entrepreneurs with new ideas, still at an early stage, have the physical and practical-theoretical infrastructure to get an idea and take it to a first product or service model.

Universities are fertile ground for this growth since startups have the opportunity to interact daily with researchers, teachers and masters to consult and develop their ideas, as well as having laboratories and physical spaces to improve the first version of their business. Most Brazilian incubators are linked to public or private universities.

The incubators offer technical support, management and complementary training to the entrepreneur and facilitate the process of innovation and access to new technologies in small businesses. In addition, they offer from Internet to meeting rooms, bibliographic collection, auditoriums and spaces to expose your business.

Among the focuses given to these new ventures while they are incubated, we can highlight business management, marketing, production engineering, accounting, legal assistance, fundraising and technology management.

Research indicates that the mortality rate of a business that passes through an incubator is reduced by 20% compared to those that do not.

Anyone who has an innovative project and wants to open their own company can apply for an incubator. The selection criteria vary, as well as the dates of application and the incubation time, which can be of 3, 6 or 12 months, in the most recurrent models.

And at 100 Open Startups, is it an incubator?

While 100 Open Startups also help entrepreneurs around the world get their ideas off the paper and validate them directly with the market, it does not fit into the incubator concept.

This is because the methodology is based on an online platform, where projects are registered and presented to experts, executives and investors according to a matchmaking algorithm, which considers the evaluator’s interests and expertise in the suggestion of startups.

This network of more than 10,000 evaluators is then invited to leave a note on their perception of the project, from A to D, written feedback to help the entrepreneur improve his business model, and state whether he has an interest in continuing to contact the solution or not.

The startups that stand out most within the platform are invited to face-to-face events, where they have the chance to accelerate negotiations and opportunities for sale, investment and partnership.

There is therefore no physical or even exclusive incubation of participating startups who can apply their ideas and solutions at any time of the year — the flow of the platform is continuous — and the selection is made only for face-to-face events according to performance and manifestations of interest that the startup receives from the network of evaluators.

There is, in fact, an integration of the methodology with the service performed by the incubators, both models being complementary: startups that have undergone an incubation process receive the benefit of Fast-Track within the platform, already entering Level 2 and being presented directly to executives.

How about signing up for your project today? Go to https://startup.openstartups.net and sign up.